To The Core

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a performance profile in To The Core that is heavily dictated by resolution and settings, with the measured data showing a clear transition from a CPU-limited state at lower resolutions to a GPU-limited state at 4K. The combination ranks in the 2380th position out of 2991 tested combos, placing it in the lower tier of systems for this specific title, despite the individual components holding respectable positions in their respective benchmark pools.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the workload shifts between the processor and graphics card as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 225 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 152 FPS, a reduction of approximately 32.4%. The jump to 3840x2160 at Low yields 87 FPS, which is another 42.8% decrease from the 1440p figure. This pattern of steep declines with each resolution step indicates that the system is not fully GPU-bound at lower resolutions — the Arc B570 is capable of pushing far more frames than the scene demands, and the scaling curve is steeper than what a pure GPU bottleneck would produce.

When examining the High preset, the same trend holds but with slightly different magnitudes. The 1080p High average is 165 FPS, which falls to 111 FPS at 1440p (a 32.7% drop) and then to 64 FPS at 4K (a 42.3% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High presets suggests that the limiting factor at 1080p and 1440p is not the GPU’s raw fill rate but rather the CPU’s ability to feed the render pipeline. The Core i5-12600KF, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, has a strong single-thread score of 1016 in 3dmark_single_thread, yet the idle genre of To The Core appears to present a workload where even this processor becomes a constraint at high frame rates.

The 4K scaling tells a different story. At 3840x2160, the gap between Low (87 FPS) and High (64 FPS) is 23 FPS, while at 1080p the same preset gap is 60 FPS. The compression of performance differences at 4K indicates that the GPU is now the primary bottleneck. The Arc B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth become the relevant factors, and the pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s starts to cap the achievable frame rate. The data shows that at 4K, the system behaves as a balanced pairing where neither component is severely underutilized, but the GPU’s limits are more apparent than at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings adjustments. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 225 FPS, Medium reaches 191 FPS, High drops to 165 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 133 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 34 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs another 26 FPS. The High to Ultra transition costs 32 FPS. Given that the genre is Idle, the playability threshold is typically lower than for fast-paced action titles, and even the Ultra preset at 1080p produces a smooth 133 FPS. However, the data suggests that the Medium preset at 191 FPS offers the best balance, as it retains a large margin above any likely refresh rate target while still providing improved visual fidelity over Low.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low delivers 152 FPS, Medium 128 FPS, High 111 FPS, and Ultra 89 FPS. The Medium preset’s 128 FPS remains comfortably above 60 FPS, and the min FPS recorded for Medium is 109, indicating good frame pacing. For users with 144Hz displays, the High preset at 111 FPS would be the practical ceiling, but for most scenarios, Medium is the recommended sweet spot. The Ultra preset at 89 FPS is still playable but leaves little headroom for scene complexity spikes.

At 3840x2160, the options narrow considerably. Low produces 87 FPS, Medium 73 FPS (with a min of 62 and max of 84), High 64 FPS, and Ultra 51 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 62 FPS is the only configuration at 4K that guarantees a stable 60 FPS experience. High at 64 FPS average is close to the threshold, but the lack of a min FPS reading in the data means the worst-case frame time is unknown. Ultra at 51 FPS falls below the 60 FPS target and is not recommended for smooth gameplay. The recommendation for 4K is Medium, with Low as a fallback for users who prioritize frame rate stability over visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo holds the 2380th rank out of 2991 tested combinations, placing it in the 79.6th percentile of all tested systems for this game. This ranking is notably lower than what the individual component benchmarks might suggest. The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus is 79, and the GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus is 65, yet the combined system ranks in the bottom 20% of tested combos for To The Core. This discrepancy indicates that the game’s engine does not scale well with the specific strengths of this pairing, or that the idle genre’s workload is dominated by factors not well captured by synthetic benchmarks.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the Intel Core i9-10900K (deltaPct -0.3), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (deltaPct -0.3), and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (deltaPct -0.3). All of these processors have average benchmark scores within 0.3% of the Core i5-12600KF’s 27799 average, indicating that the CPU is not the differentiator in the ranking. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the Intel Arc A750 (deltaPct -0.1), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (deltaPct 0.1), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (deltaPct -0.5). The Arc B570’s average benchmark score of 20556 is nearly identical to the Arc A750’s 20582, suggesting that the two Intel cards perform similarly in general workloads.

The low combo rank relative to component percentiles implies that the game favors other hardware configurations. The data does not specify which combos occupy the higher ranks, but the implication is that systems with different CPU-GPU pairings achieve better frame rates in this title. The 10-core, 16-thread CPU configuration may be overkill for the idle genre’s thread utilization, while the GPU’s 10 GB VRAM and 160-bit bus width may not be optimally exploited by the game’s rendering paths.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low 225 FPS, Medium 191 FPS (min 162, max 219), High 165 FPS, and Ultra 133 FPS. The Medium preset’s frame time data shows a spread of 57 FPS between the minimum and maximum, indicating some variance in scene complexity but overall stable performance. The gap between Low and Ultra is 92 FPS, which represents a 40.9% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 152 FPS, Medium 128 FPS (min 109, max 147), High 111 FPS, and Ultra 89 FPS. The Medium preset’s min-to-max spread is 38 FPS, tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more consistently loaded. The step from Low to Medium costs 24 FPS, while Medium to High costs 17 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 22 FPS. The diminishing returns are not perfectly even, but the overall trend shows each settings tier reducing performance by roughly 15-20%.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 87 FPS, Medium 73 FPS (min 62, max 84), High 64 FPS, and Ultra 51 FPS. The Medium preset’s min of 62 FPS is just above the 60 FPS threshold, while the max of 84 FPS indicates that the GPU can occasionally deliver higher performance when the scene is less demanding. The Low to Medium step costs 14 FPS, Medium to High costs 9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 13 FPS. The percentage drops are larger at 4K: Low to Ultra represents a 41.4% reduction, similar to the 1080p percentage but from a much lower absolute starting point.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, specifically the Battlemage generation. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The GPU’s clock speeds are fixed at 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which is a relatively high sustained frequency that helps maintain consistent performance across varying loads. The memory subsystem consists of 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth figure is adequate for the measured resolutions, though the 160-bit bus width may create bottlenecks in memory-intensive scenes.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show strong compute performance: 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 2649, geekbench_vulkan score of 96844, and passmark_g3d score of 14195. The passmark_directx_11 score of 118 and passmark_directx_12 score of 72 are relatively low compared to the g3d score, suggesting that the card’s performance is highly dependent on the API and workload type. The Vulkan score being higher than OpenCL (83514) indicates that the architecture favors Vulkan’s lower overhead. In To The Core, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (51 FPS) aligns with the GPU being the limiting factor at that resolution, as the pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s caps the fill rate required for 3840x2160 rendering.

The GPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, has an average benchmark score within 0.1% of the B570. This suggests that the B570 offers a marginal improvement over its predecessor, but the measured game performance would likely be similar between the two. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not stressed at 1080p or 1440p in this title, and even at 4K, the memory footprint of To The Core appears manageable given the consistent frame rates. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper third of available cards, but the combo’s low game-specific rank indicates that this GPU is not the primary driver of the system’s placement.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in To The Core?*

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 2560x1440 with Medium settings (128 FPS average, 109 FPS minimum) provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability. At 4K, only the Medium preset (73 FPS average, 62 FPS minimum) reliably exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The Core i5-12600KF’s single-thread score of 1016 in 3dmark is strong, but the frame rates of 225 FPS at Low and 165 FPS at High suggest the processor cannot feed the GPU fast enough to reach its full potential at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 165 at 1920x1080 to 64 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 61.2%. At the Low preset, the drop is from 225 to 87 FPS, a 61.3% reduction. The scaling is consistent across settings.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K?

A: The measured average is 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. While technically functional, the frame rate is not ideal for a consistent experience, and the Medium preset (73 FPS) is recommended instead.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to the Arc A750 in this game?

A: The two GPUs have nearly identical average benchmark scores (20556 for B570, 20582 for A750, a delta of -0.1%). The measured FPS for the B570 in this combo would likely be very close to what an A750 would produce, given the similar synthetic performance.

Q: What is the FPS range for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The measured data shows a minimum of 109 FPS, a maximum of 147 FPS, and an average of 128 FPS. This range of 38 FPS indicates moderate scene complexity variance but stable overall performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, with base and boost clocks of 3.70 GHz and 4.90 GHz respectively. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 20 MB L3 cache. The processor’s benchmark scores are robust: cinebench_r23_multicore score of 23391 and singlecore of 3302, geekbench_multicore of 12137 and singlecore of 2157, and passmark_multithread of 27575. The percentileVsAllCpus of 79 places it in the upper fifth of all processors tested.

In the context of To The Core, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p and 1440p where frame rates exceed 150 FPS. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 7956 and 3dmark_8_threads score of 6128 show strong scaling across threads, but the game’s idle genre likely does not utilize all 16 threads equally. The passmark_single_thread score of 3925 indicates solid single-core performance, which is critical for games that rely on a main simulation thread. The CPU’s nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i9-10900K and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, all have average benchmark scores within 0.3% of this chip, confirming that the 12600KF is competitive with older flagship parts.

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 225 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s limit for this game. The fact that the 1440p Low setting only drops to 152 FPS (a 32.4% decrease) rather than a larger drop suggests that the CPU is still partially limiting at 1440p. At 4K, the CPU’s influence wanes, and the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. The processor’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s data access patterns, and the 10 nm process node allows for high sustained clocks without thermal throttling in most scenarios. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this class of processor, and the unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking, though the measured data does not include any overclocked results.